


Pisces

by VicZar



Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: Bushmedicine - Freeform, M/M, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-05
Updated: 2018-08-25
Packaged: 2018-12-11 12:02:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11714016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VicZar/pseuds/VicZar
Summary: TF2 Mermaid alternate universe fanfiction.A Story about two mated mermaids.Mermedic Johannes and Mersniper Roger were looking for a meal one day, and it just so happens something else was looking for them.





	1. Catch of the Day

 

Thick fog blanketed the waters of the Massachusetts Bay. The cool morning air echoed with the screeching of seabirds nesting over the secluded cliffs of Calf Island and the occasional blaring of fishing boat horns. Sea-green eyes surveyed their surroundings, before slipping back into the cold murky waters below.

Roger dug out a few more clams hidden beneath the fine white sands of the seafloor, throwing the captured bivalves into a crudely-made sack crafted from woven kelp. It was quite a successful morning haul; numerous scallops, clams, mussels, oysters, and a few stray crabs. With such an abundance of food, he wouldn’t need to go out again to hunt for the rest of the day. He tossed the last one into the kelp-sack and closed it as best as he could, preparing his harvest for the haul back to his mate. Roger’s mate was always good with cracking open his favourite treats. Unlike his own hands which were bare of protective scales, save only for his left hand, his mate’s arms were covered with steel blue scales that ran from clawed fingertips up to the elbows.

-

Johannes was resting inside a small cove, occasionally flicking his blue tail or holding onto a boulder to steady himself against the rolling waves coming in from outside. His home was layered with rocks and colorful sea-glass smoothed by years of seawater pounding and wearing the rocks down, and large jagged boulders that shielded him from the raging waters of the ocean outside and water vessels driven by humans. Alone and half-blind, he wouldn’t dare leave the safety of the cove. So instead busied himself by picking up fish bones, crustacean and clam shells scattered on the floor and stacking them away into a neat pile.

The sun was at its peak in the sky when Johannes heard the familiar clicks and whistles of his mate swimming in, carrying his kelp-sack. Even with his poor eyesight, he could recognize Roger’s unmistakable dark maroon tail marked with two bold white stripes running down to his tail fluke from a distance. He quickly guessed the kelp sack held clams, just by how the contents clacked against each other when moved. Johannes swam over and greeted his mate, playfully nipping on Roger’s shoulder before giving him a kiss on the cheek.

“Hello! How was it? Great job!” he expressed in cheerful tone, communicating to his mate in their mermaidian language of whistles, clicks, humming and movement.

“Very good haul this morning” Roger responded, proudly showing off his catch as he opened the mouth of his kelp-sack wider for Johannes to see.

 

 

 

They were a strange mated pair, even by mermaid standards. During the mating season, numerous pods of mermaids would migrate from cold waters to warmer waters, such as the seas of Australia. Roger was considered an oddity of their kind, displaying no interest in selecting a female partner nor partaking in any mermaidian mating rituals. A few females had tried enticing him to be their mate. However, Roger would ignore their advances and take the opportunity to hunt instead. He would go about catching the nearby prey darting out of their homes, spooked by the large masses of mermaids frolicking with each other in their romantic pursuits. The startled marine wildlife made easy marks for him.

Johannes on the other hand, was different from Roger, and he had wished for a mate of his own. The females never chose him as their partner. They have either sensed his handicap, or chose the bigger males over him. With his poor eyesight, Johannes had trouble both with hunting and foraging for his own meal, which contributed to his small size and leaner frame. A mermaid living in the wild such as him wouldn’t have survived this long, had he not have a pod to help him obtain his food. Johannes was also an agreeable individual, which worked in his favor of joining into new pods or acquiring sustenance from other mermaids.

It was one late July when Johannes chanced upon the lone Roger looking for his meal hiding under silt. Mating season was ending, and yet an impressive-looking male such as Roger not having a mate like him? It stirred up quite the interest in him, and Johannes decided to leave his pod and befriend the solitary male. Mermaids have often traveled in groups, and survival in the wilderness of the ocean is always better with an ally. Roger would acquire most of the food for the two of them, while Johannes manipulated their meal in a way to make it easier for them to eat. The pinching claws, sharp spikes and rock-hard shells of their prey never stood a chance against the unique pair of scale-clad hands Johannes possessed.

Over many years, the pair had developed a strong bond between each other. The two mermaids have survived through the many obstacles the sea had presented such as harsh currents that almost swept them away, maelstroms, icy-cold waters of the north and south, and boiling-hot waters caused by submerged underwater volcanoes. And there was also the danger from predators, ranging from the vicious hunger of large seals and sharks to the unpredictable humans themselves. Roger still carried a scar on his left cheek and ear when a cecaelian had attacked him. They’ve also gone through times of plenty, living on the bounty of what the ocean has provided for its inhabitants. And through many years of being together, they have seen the beautiful dancing lights of the cold waters of the north, the lush colorful reefs of the pacific, human weddings and celebrations by the beach, and the billions of twinkling stars above them, painted over the night sky. Their relationship had evolved from simple companionship, to permanent mateship.

 

 

Humans have often argued whether mermaids are an evolved species of dolphin or shark, or that mermaids and humans had a common ancestor dating back millions of years ago. They have, however, considered mermaids as an animal with a human-like upper torso and a lower body of a fish. Wild mermaids have attacked humans before when they have strayed too close to them or have invaded their territories. Roger stayed true to this trait, being wary of humans swimming near him, and sees them nothing more as dangerous land creatures capable of swimming and manipulating metallic behemoths. Johannes did not share his mate’s displeasure against humans. On the contrary, the finless, two-tailed walking mermaids were fascinating to him. His blind state was no hindrance to his curiosity. He would often hide under piers or linger in shores near human settlements, observing how the land creatures would go about in their everyday lives at a safe distance.

In his juvenile years, Johannes had once dragged a small child who had strayed too far from her own family down into the depths of the ocean. In his playfulness, he would have drowned her had he not noticed that the young creature was panicking, thrashing about and clawing for the surface. Johannes then assumed that these creatures could breathe underwater like him, and in the discovery of the child’s distress, he immediately pushed the child back towards the surface and left her gasping for air on the shore where he first found her.

-

Noon. Another new day.

Roger decided to take Johannes along with him in hunting down some schools of migrating salmon, which were abundant at this time of the year and would be out at sea gorging on small fishes. It was best to take his mate along and dine at where they were, as there was always the danger of sharks following him into their hidden cove once they caught on the scent of his catch’s blood.

Agile, young salmon that had journeyed from a nearby river tested Roger’s speed and dexterity, as they kept slipping right out of his hands. With Roger busy chasing after the speedy salmons, Johannes made use of his time instead on acquiring slower-moving prey such as lobsters and clams.

A swift blow on the crustacean’s head from his scalpel-sharp claws was all it took to euthanize the lobster. A good, large-sized beauty at that, it would make a perfect meal for brunch. As Johannes grabbed his prize, a silhouette of an encroaching boat suddenly loomed over him. It moved silently above the water, save for the voices of humans boarded on it. Perhaps it was a “Watcher” boat? He had met multiple Watcher boats before. From years of experience, he knew that these slow, silent-moving boats carried friendly humans that would come in from the mainland and watched them, specifically in the seasons when different pods of mermaids had recently migrated in from the cold waters. “Fisher” boats on the other hand were louder, much more destructive and dangerous to their kind. These human vessels threw ensnaring nets out to sea, and would sometimes run over any creature unfortunate enough to get in their way. But a Watcher boat in this season? Pods of mermaids would have already traveled back to their territories, carrying their young with them or accompanied by their new mates.With his curiosity getting the better of him, Johannes wedged his lobster in a piece of rock coral to prevent any opportunistic thief stealing their meal, and swam towards the surface.

With his head emerging above water, he could see the blurred figures of the humans on the boat walking onboard. A large stocky human, a short stout human and lean skinny human were all arguing with each other in their alien language. By the tone of their voices, they sounded very frustrated. The largest man in the group was shouting at his two smaller companions.

Johannes decided that it would be best that he’d leave these unpleasant folks be, and as he was diving back down into the water, a large net was thrown right on top of him. The weight of the net dragged him down towards the sea bed, trapping him against the floor of rocks and sand. Immediately he started to panic, clawing and chewing at the thick ropes that held him down. A sound of a water splash from above, and the skinny human from the boat swam towards him and started to do some work on the net. When the human had finally finished managing the net, he tugged on a large piece of rope and Johannes found himself being hauled up towards the surface and into the boat.

-

Another salmon had escaped yet again from his hands. Roger was starting to get miffed at the elusive young fish, and decided to pursue another kind of prey instead. Maybe his mate had better luck than him with some crustaceans. Swimming back to where he had left Johannes, he immediately noticed a dead lobster sticking out from some rock coral. Upon closer inspection, the lobster appeared to be forcefully wedged into it. He also noticed the sand floor and stones surrounding the rock coral disturbed. Roger tried to figure out what had caused all this. Plucking the dead lobster from the rock coral, he traced his fingers all over its shell, seeing a deep groove running down its head. It was recognizably his mate’s handiwork.

-

The skinny man gasped for air as soon as he surfaced from the water and climbed back on deck. He sat down, removing the fins off his feet as the larger man pulled the struggling mermaid out of the water and dragged it away.

“Whew, count on Virgil to spot a ‘maid. Lucky for us that there’s one of them out here!” the skinny man huffed as he yanked the other fin off his feet.

“That’s because you fools wouldn’t shut up even for one minute to notice one of ‘em bobbing up to the surface!”

The largest man in the crew was busy handling the mermaid, whom had started to wail while thrashing inside the net in an effort to free itself. He used his knee to immobilize the tail fluke and, with his bare hands, grabbed the mermaid by the nape of its neck and pinned him down against the hard, metal floor.

“Fred! Get your fat ass over here and tie him up would you? We don’t want coast guards hearing all the noise it’s making!” he hollered, which sent the stout man running to grab the restraints and binding the creature’s arms and mouth.

“Ross! Head back to mainland.” the large man ordered.

“Right boss.” their helmsman obediently replied, turning the engine back on and started steering the boat towards their destination.

Johannes’ distressed cries pierced through the waters, echoing off the rocks and corals strewn throughout the seabed. It was shortly followed by the deafening roar of what could only be a boat’s engine, motors pulsating and its propellers whirring away. Alarmed, Roger began looking around to pinpoint where the noise was coming from and saw a deep blue-colored boat speeding away from the area. Immediately he began his pursuit after the vehicle.


	2. The Wetmarket

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After being captured and taken from the sea, Johannes was now in the hands of human poachers, who were now holding his fate into their hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this took almost a year! I'm not as good in writing and I often need help from my friends who edit my work and and give me confidence. With that said, enjoy! :')

 

 

 

Cold, flat, slippery floors. The unmistakable  stench of fish blood in the air. Rubber boots squeaked against the ceramic tiles, and voices resonated throughout the dimly-lit, hollow chamber. Blindfolded and arms bound together, Johannes couldn’t tell where he was. His heart pounded hard against his ribcage.

Out of nowhere cold water was splashed on him, making him shriek.

 

       “So what are we gonna do with ‘im boss? Are we gonna sell ‘im as a breeder?” a jittery, male voice spoke.

       “Nah, too skinny  for breeding. All he’d produce are runts,” boomed another voice, whom probably belonged from the large man.

 

Johannes began to wail again and slapped his tail against the floor a few times.

 

       “SHUT IT!” the large man’s voice thundered throughout the dingy little room, immediately making him cease his distressed cries.

       “Put the gag back on him would ya, Fred! Why the hell did you take that off?!”

       “R-r-r-right boss… Sorry.”

 

Stout hands grabbed him by the face, sharp fingers squeezing his mouth open. Something smooth and bitter was forced between his teeth and he was released, as if his captor feared a bite.

 

       “What about definning him?” Another human’s voice reverberated in the room. “ Wild ‘maid fins fetch a high price in the chinese market!”

 

Strong hands immediately fell upon his back and yanked on his dorsal fin as if they were trying to rip it from his spine. He cried through the mouth-gag, beads of tears streaming from his eyes.

 

       “They won’t pay for this. The fins’ too dark. You know how the chinks like it, they only want bright colors.”

       “I know ‘maids are rare at this time of the year boss, but it’s just too bad that this one’s got some really ugly colors.”

 

Johannes felt the blindfold being pulled down from his face, and immediately his eyes met the piercing gaze of the large man. Terrifying, and cruel; he was not another living creature to this human, but something to be tormented and used. Johannes whimpered.

 

       “True. But he’s got some pretty blue eyes on him.” His crooked mouth twisted into a menacing grin. “Call Bea, tell her she has her mermaid.”

 

-

 

Sheer winds and heavy rains poured over the Boston Harbor, and every boat on that day had docked themselves for safety from the storm. Roger laid flat against a small island of a boulder, exhausted and cold as the icy raindrops pelted his skin like  bullets.

He had forgone feeding and sleep, searching restlessly for days along the coast, diligently following any and every boat  to seek for signs of his lost mate. Diving into the ocean’s depths would provide safety and shelter, but he ignored his instincts for self-preservation, clinging to the shred of hope Johannes would be out there, somewhere on the surface, calling out for him. Now between the storm and the violent waves, Roger had beached himself on this small perch.

 

Even as the waves pounded against his flattened form, trying to rip him from the craggy rock, he endured. Most of his energy was spent, but his spirit was unyielding. Johannes was out there, somewhere.

 

And he will find him.

 

-

Beatrice was overjoyed when she had gotten the call that her long-awaited mermaid had finally arrived. The elusive animals were hard to come by, and the news had made her happier than a little birthday girl getting her very own pony. In fact, she wouldn’t stop badgering her old friend to rush the mermaid over as soon as they can.

 

With a loud honk of a car, her shuffling strides alternated with gleeful skips in every couple of steps as she made her way to open the back gates of her home. She wrestled the heavy locks and chains on her gate before swinging the iron bars wide open, letting the pick-up truck through and into her backyard. A few of her animals, all of which were caged and fettered, began to screech and squawk at the large vehicle rumbling in.

 

       “One mermaid, just like I promised to ya Bea” the large man spoke gruffly, alighting from the pick-up truck and slamming the door shut, which elicited a few more shrieks from the animals.

 

He pulled off the tarpaulin canvas revealing a large plastic container beneath. Releasing the ropes off the lid, he popped it off to expose a trembling Johannes inside. He was gagged and restrained, arms bound around his tail to prevent him from making any sort noise. His eyes were widened as the two faces stared down upon him, focus switching between them.

 

       “Awww Cassy, he’s beautiful.” the old woman crooned. Beatrice couldn’t help but immediately reach in and begin petting her new animal.

       “Watch it Bea! I haven’t trimmed him yet!” Casmir barked, trying to yank the old woman’s arm away.

       “Oh hush Cassy he’s all bound up. You worry too much!” Bea tutted, slapping Casmir’s wrist away.

       “This ain’t no pet Bea. It’s still a wild animal and it can bite or claw at you at any time”.

 

The large man grumbled a few words while stroking his wrist before grabbing a pair of garden pruners from his truck. He freed the mermaid’s arms from the tail and began snipping away at the scalpel-sharp claws. Johannes was beyond terrified to fight against Casmir, for the man was almost three times his size and his scent heavily insinuated of danger.

 

       “I wish you could’ve gotten me a pretty female mermaid though. He’s kind of dull in color and his fins are way too short, not like those pretty pink and green mermaids I see on the t.v.” _Clip!_ clip! _clip! clip!_

       “What, this one’s not good enough for ya? Those are the fancy mermaids yer talkin’ about Bea. Only millionaires who got cash to burn could afford one” _clip clip!_

       “Could you get me one of those then?” _Clip clip! clip!_

       “For fuck’s sake Bea it’s already hard to…!!!” **clip**.

 

Johannes suddenly slapped his tail hard against the side of the truck, causing the whole vehicle to jolt and creak. One of his fingers began to ooze out bright red blood. “Agh look what ya made me do!”. The mermaid continued to twist and roll against Casmir’s grip, and in his impatience he slapped the rowdy creature and shook him violently.

Not wishing to meet any more blows from the man, he obediently tucked his head between his arms.

 

       “Cassy! Tsk you’re too rough, don’t ruin my mermaid before he even gets the chance to join my zoo” Bea complained, grabbing the crook of Casmir’s arm.

       “Tsk, sorry” he simply replied, pinching the tip of the bleeding finger.

 

The woman’s lair was crammed with grotesquely-shaped animals, hooting and scrambling in their cages and tanks. Johannes, in all his life, had never seen such land creatures before. Flat faces with piercing eyes. Long thin tails that reminded him of eels and sea snakes. Thin, knobby legs tipped with large, smooth black shells. Narwhal-like horns curled and twisted like an octopus’ tentacle. Claws and teeth sharper than a crab’s and more menacing than a shark’s. There seemed to be many more in there as he had figured it out from the sounds going on around him. Birds were a familiar sight for him, as they have often hovered over and greeted him with caws and screeches, but never before birds such as these with large curved bills and frightening long talons.

 

Johannes was placed in a large tank that barely had enough room for him to turn his long body around, where the walls were seemingly made of the clearest unbreakable ice, and the waters tasted of bland rainwater. The woman placed a lid right over his prison and scuffled back to her home, sealing his fate.

 

He fell in dismay and sank at the bottom of the tank, aching for Roger’s presence.


	3. Pond Waters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beatrice showcases her new addition to the zoo. The visitors loved the mermaid, but Johannes doesn't feel the same way. Meanwhile Roger continues his search.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof, sorry for the long wait!  
> Sussuri helped me out again in this one, and a few more gave me such amazing feedback that I was able to present this today :'3
> 
> Enjoy!

 

Beatrice was proudly showing off her brand-new addition to the zoo, and the visitors were as equally excited over the mermaid. Johannes huddled himself in a small corner of his display area, back pressed against the wall and his tail shielding his small framed body from the view. He was peeking through his translucent tail fluke, observing the strange new world around him.

Beatrice’s home was located a few miles away from the Boston sea, remotely hidden and far away from the city, yet close to a few surrounding towns. The “zoo” was a collection of multiple cages and tanks of varying sizes and shapes, held together with cement, high-strength acrylic walls and steel bars. They were all adorned with gaudy decor and sceneries printed on tarpaulin canvases, to add atmosphere to each of her animals’ enclosures.

Johannes’ enclosure was merely a patch of land with a wading pool, surrounded by steel bars and an interweaving netting made of the most durable ropes no creature can chew through. The pool itself was quite shallow, hastily dug up and cemented just in time for his arrival. It barely provided enough water to even cover his whole body, and the water itself was rather bland and tasteless like rainwater. To add the appeal of a seashore, Beatrice had thrown in seashells, dried up starfishes and chunks of dead coral all over the place. It reminded him of unfortunate creatures tragically washed up on shore and left to be baked under the sun. For the final touches of a seaside theme, some nautical paraphernalia of wooden anchors and alike were hung, along with a large tarpaulin canvas depicting a tropical paradise hanging on one side of the enclosure.

 

The people were enthusiastic about the sea creature, ooh-ing and ahh-ing at him, grabbing their cameras or bouncing on their heels. The locals had only seen mermaids from television sets and media. It was quite a rare and expensive commodity to get a hold of. Beatrice’s zoo offered services, such as taking pictures with the animal in the enclosure, feeding them or touching them, with an extra fee of course.

 

**Sniff sniff sniff**. So many new and unknown smells. So many strange and frightening sounds. Towering beings and skewed blurry faces crowded over him and overwhelmed the already bewildered Johannes. There were a multitude of hands reaching for him, petting his head and grabbing his fins, tugging and grabbing at his tail. Some nudged and urged him to move and pose for the camera. It was all too much, the tall creatures were attacking him from all directions! And nowhere to go and hide in. He started to growl and chitter, and clicked his teeth menacingly at the humans, attempting to make it known that he did not want to be treated as such any longer. Yet, it seemed that the tailless beings did not heed his warnings as they were drowned out from noises of excitement. To his surprise, out of nowhere a child had snuck up on him from behind and sat on him, to which he retaliated by striking out and knocking the infant over with a tail-slap.

The child was clearly distraught and screamed, catching the crowd off-guard from their merriment. It made such awful noises, bawling horrendously that Johannes took the chance to retreat into the wading pool. Beatrice immediately went to console the parents and apologize the guests, saying that the animal didn’t mean to harm the child and was simply “playing rough”. Deciding to prevent anymore scandal from happening, she decided to redirect all of her guests away from the scene and yanked the covers down from the walls of the mermaid’s enclosure. Beatrice wasn’t pleased at Johannes’ behaviour.

 

That evening she expressed her wrath by swatting the mermaid a few times on his rump and side. She screamed and scorned at the mermaid, disciplining him with a wooden stick and yelling harsh words that held no meaning to him. Only pure, chilling anger. Her rage was almost as equally chilling as the large man from before. The ordeal seemed to be over, but Beatrice was not over with her punishment. She dragged the mermaid away to his tank hidden behind the house and left him there without food. For two days he was starved, and by the time Beatrice finally forgave him, he begged for the mercy of the vicious old female and ate ravenously from her hands.

 

Johannes had learned that in order to survive and avoid Beatrice’s wrath, is that he must never raise a claw and fight back at the humans. He was out of his element and in the humans’ domain. Here, he was powerless and at the mercy of the sun and of his captor. Food can only be found from the hands of humans. Fighting against them would mean the wooden stick striking against his skin later that evening. Pleasing them would provide him a meal. More humans in his enclosure would mean more green leaves and shiny flat stones for Beatrice, and these objects greatly pleased her. He would find more food thrown to him or better quality fish whenever she’s pleased and would hum or sing while walking past his tank.

-

From desperation to downright obsession, Roger was visibly ragged and thinner. It had been a month since his mate was taken away, yet he pursued his quest of seeking Johannes from every ship, every boat, and every vehicle in the Boston Bay. It had gone to the point that unwary boats would be attacked by the mermaid jumping in the deck of the ship and knocking the crewmen off their feet, sometimes falling out to sea. When Roger couldn’t find what he was searching for, he would immediately leap out and disappear into the depths of the ocean. Where did these tailless monsters take Johannes?

He didn’t believe that his mate was dead. He can’t possibly be. The thought had sometimes occured through his mind and horrified him. Mermaids that were taken away by humans will never come back. Stories from those that had survived the slaughter of their pods, from the old to the newborns. All of them were hauled away and shredded with steel claws sharper than any mermaid’s. What greedy creatures! How vast and empty are the stomachs of these accursed creatures, to be needed to be filled by whole families of mermaids?

No, he has to be alive. He can’t be dead!

 

Roger went on to terrorize the docks of the Boston Harbor. He was strong enough to knock several people over all at once, yet agile enough to escape from attempts of capturing him or breaking their defenses. He was a frightful sight for the humans, sharp teeth bared and dorsal fin shivering. The commotion Roger made had started to get the attention from the residents of Boston Harbor, deeming him dangerous and a menace to fishermen and civilians alike that they had employed nets and guns to bring down the rogue mermaid.

-

For all the people could’ve known, the zoo mermaid was considered tame and harmless. Beatrice made sure of that. Most of the visitors had treated Johannes poorly. For fun, some would grab his tail and pose as if they’ve caught a dangerous animal, or handled him so roughly to the point that some of his scales would come off of him. The deep blue scales were very pretty, as hard and translucent as scallop shells, but as flexible as the human nail. These were eagerly collected by the visitors to take home as trinkets. Johannes considered the rowdy human offsprings as the worst. Often times, the parents would tell the children to sit on him to pose for the camera and the weight they beared down on him was rather uncomfortable. He’d endure all of these painful moments, as for displeasing Beatrice would mean he’d either be beaten with a stick, or left to starve for days.

There were rare occasions, of the kinder species of humans who would gently pet and caress him. The young ones would shyly approach him; offering him morsels and snacks. Adults brushing and grooming him, scratching under his chin or stroking down his neck. He was quite surprised from the gentle touches amongst a barrage of hooked fingers and menacing hands, staring at these beings with disbelief.

When the day was finally over, Beatrice would lead him back to his small tank behind her house. The tank water was bland and foul. Beatrice rarely cleaned his tank, where scraps of rotting fish and nests of algae floated around him. He couldn’t breath under all that fetid water and had to spend his time head above water and resting against the corners of the tank. Even in such foul conditions, this was the only place where he could find solace and peace.

 

Mermaids are said to be taxonomically different from humans. An evolutionary difference of one creature choosing opportunities land could possibly offer while the other stayed in the blessings of the sea. Even though mermaids are significantly different from humans, they express their grief and sadness in the same way. Johannes was no exception, and he pressed his palms and his forehead on the acrylic walls of his tank.

Tears began to trickle down his cheeks. His throat started to ebb and quiver. His lips trembled, before finally he couldn’t hold his grief and began to wail out in misery. Streams of tears flowed as he pitifully sobbed in isolation. He grieved for the loss of his freedom, of his mate, of his happiness. He continued to wail, gripping on the walls with hands marred with disease. His cries were long, forlorn and sorrowful. They carried through the cold night’s air, haunting those who could have heard it, but was drowned out by the sounds of cars and lively commotion of the nearby town. A stern shout from Beatrice from the back of the house finally stopped his cries.

Somewhere out there, Roger can be heard crying out as well

-

Months slowly dragged on by. Johannes was miserable, and lonely. Lonelier than he had ever felt in his life, than the times where he was chased away from the safety of the pod, forced to wander through the infinite vastness of the ocean blind and alone. His health had deteriorated severely as well. His appearance was terrible. Scales were missing from his piscine-like body, his ribs visible on his sides, and his skin had a bluish tinge. Pain shot through his body in every single movement he makes. He couldn’t breathe properly as well. He didn’t have an appetite. He was often found motionless, save for his effort to keep his head out of the dirty tank water. No matter how threatening Beatrice was with the stick or how loud she barks the mermaid to get out of his tank to go to his display enclosure, he wouldn’t budge. Nobody would want to see a sick despondent mermaid.

The old woman did everything she could. She changed the waters to clean salted water. She pried his mouth open and shoved in pills and tablets. She enticed him to eat with tastier morsels. None worked, and Johannes continued to lay motionless in his tank.

 

Beatrice had to find someone to treat her mermaid. Fast.

**Author's Note:**

> I'd like to thank the lovely people of TF2 tumblr discord for motivating, inspiring and helping me out writing this fic. :'3  
> I've been quite shy to go for writing fanfictions, as I am more confident and skilled in drawing rather than writing.


End file.
